MCDBA info

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hi ppl!

im just doing a query for a colleague at work who is wanting to start MCDBA... what would be good to know before starting it?
He is done a very short course in relational databases with a little knowledge of SQL.. any info or maybe books he should read before starting out?

thanks

 

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That's a tricky one.
I'm thinking of doing a DBA.
Two of the four modules are on networking although you have some flexibility on one of them. So if he's new he may want to consider a more gentle start on A+ or N+.
I've done the 229 exam as part of my MCSD and it was pretty tough.

 

he has both of those... we looked at both 229 and 228 and the exams arent clear of what you need to know.. mind summing up what you need to know?

 

A lot....


Seriously, it depends on what he wants to do with the MCDBA. What role does he really want to fill? What are the goals he is wanting to accomplish with the cert?

The two exams you listed are but a portion of what it takes to get an MCDBA, but the rest of what you go for depends on your end goals. Here are the requirements for the MCDBA.

This is not an easy cert to get. It takes a lot of time and study. I actually have almost as many books devoted subject related to my MCDBA as I do to my MCSE. He will not be able to depend on exam books alone, and you must have at least one copy of SQL Server 2000 to do this cert, preferably two or three so he can do the replication work needed. That means copies of either Server 2000 or Server 2003 too as one of the required exams is one or the other of these two server OS's.

I have 17 books on things related to Sql Server plus the Sybex books for each individual cert. All totaled that's 21 books related to this certification alone. I needed them all too as I have limited experience with databases. If a person has no experience with databases and how they work, and no scripting or programming background this will be a cert that will take quite a while to get, because you have to both program in T-SQL and administer a database to get this cert. Teaching yourself to program is a lot more difficult than teaching yourself to administer a server for the vast majority of people too. I know it is for me.

Database design in and of itself is a subject that requires a lot of study. A person needs a book or two on that subject. To be good at it requires quite a bit of practice too.

I'd recommend having books on T-SQL, performance tuning, security, design, DTS, and on administration itself.

 

thanks mate!
from what he tells me he has done a few databases on access and made a few queries using mySQL. Tell me what is the exact role of SQL Server?

And please would it be possible to post the titles of some of those books?

thanks!

 

I guess I don't really get your question. What do you mean by role? SQL Server 2000 is the database server that the current MCDBA cert is based on. IT uses Microsoft's verson of the SQL programming language called Transact-SQL, or T-SQL for short.

Books I used:

Database Design for Mere Mortals by Hernandez

The Guru's Guide to Transact SQL by Henderson

SQL Server 2000 Programming by Viera

SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit from Microsoft Press

Mastering SQL Server 2000 Security by Young and Young

SQL Server 2000 DTS from Wrox Press

SQL Server 2000 Performance Tuning from Microsoft Press

The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML by Henderson

SQL Server 2000 Reference Library from Microsoft Press (6 books)

SQL Server Security from McGraw Hill

SQL A Beginners Guide by Houlette

SQL Server 2000 Unleashed by Rankins, Bertucci, and Jensen

The four Sybex books for the exams.

 

To work effectively with some of the more advanced DTS jobs a knowledge of VBScript and Visual Basic are needed. So, some books on those are needed too, unless that is already current knowledge. I didn't buy anything on Visual Basic but I do have a few of books on VBScript: Windows 2000 Scripting Guide, Windows Scripting Secrets, and a reference book, VBScript in a Nutshell.

 

holy cr@p!

select * from ffreeloader where booksread = "sql";

 

Looks like you've been writing a lot of pgsql queries.....

SQL A Beginner's Guide is truly a beginner's introduction to t-sql. The Henderson books live up to their names. They really are for guru's in T-SQL. The SQL Server 2000 Programming book actually is only partly about programming. It's much more an administration book. It covers the basics of things like stored procedures, triggers, cursors, queries, etc... but it's pretty basic coverage.

 

mysql actually. i may be an mcdba, but i forgot most of it, simply because i don't work with ms sql on a daily basis.

 

I didn't recognize that as MySQL's version of SQL, but it sure looks like the command line version of Postgresql's sql queries. It's the ; at the end of the query that made me think Postgresql. Interesting to see that MySQL uses the same syntax.